INSIDE, Twinlinx partner on MyMax NFC sticker
Two French companies–INSIDE Contactless and Twinlinx–announced they are working together to integrate INSIDE’s secure components in the Twinlinx MyMax NFC sticker, and are seeking to gain type approval from major bank card brands. INSIDE will be supporting Twinlinx’s initial go-to-market initiatives in North America and other markets as part of INSIDE’s initiative to jumpstart the mobile payments market in 2010. Twinlinx is in discussions with wireless carriers and transport operators in the U.S. and Europe, and has already established agreements with a number of them.
INSIDE and Twinlinx, created by INSIDE’s founder and former CEO Jacek Kowalski, have worked in partnership since 2008. The MyMax NFC sticker incorporates INSIDE’s MicroPass payment platform, enabling NFC payment and communication capability to be added to most Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. INSIDE’s MicroPass has been approved by all major payment brands.
“Because the MyMax sticker can communicate with a mobile phone, it is able to support NFC operating modes external to the phone, offering banks a way to start NFC mobile payment deployments in 2010,” said Charles Walton, INSIDE’s executive vice president.
MyMax is a thin electronic sticker designed to upgrade existing and future Bluetooth phones with NFC functionality and open the door to development and mass deployment of NFC applications, including payment, transport, loyalty, access control and smart posters. MyMax now works with many mobile phones and smart phones.
“Payment will be a critical component for a broad range of NFC applications, and we will be working with INSIDE to obtain payment certification for the MyMax product from major bank card brands,” said Kowalski.
INSIDE and Twinlinx will be showing the MyMax NFC sticker during the CARTES & IDentification 2009 conference and expo in Paris, Nov. 17-19.